Hyperpigmentation Made Easy

Uneven skin tone, dark spots, blemishes – regardless of what you call it, hyperpigmentation is a major complexion killer.

Is hyperpigmentation giving you the beauty blues?

And if asked what skin type would you really like.

Why an air brush finish that is complete with no blemishes would no doubt be on your wish list.

Well I want to let you into a little beauty secret.

There is no such thing as perfect skin.

That’s hard to get your head around I know.

But not when you realize that there are 529 genes involved in pigmentary disorders.

Regardless of coloring or ethnic background hyperpigmentation is a real life issue.

Many people struggle, with their skin appearing lighter or darker than usual in concentrated areas.

But stop don’t panic, I’m here to help you deal with your beauty blues, and give you the guidance to get back that lovely even glow, which is your next step in skin health.

So how does you’re skin color?

Hyperpigmentation is the result of very complex biological processes in the skin, which can lead to the production of melanin by melanocytes, found in the basal layer of your outer layer of skin.

Melanocytes can be likened to tiny PIGMENT FACTORIES in the skin.

It is these pigment producing cells, which are triggered by tyrosinase enzymes, which are responsible for creating the colour of our hair, skin and eyes.

Different coloured skin types all contain the same number of melanocytes, but those with different ethnic backgrounds, carry genes that make melanocytes produce more pigment referred to as melanin.

Excess melanin creates hyperpigmentation, brown spots on the skin that can appear anywhere, but most commonly on the face, hands, neck and décolleté.

Diseases

Pregnancy

Medications

Hormones

Birth control

Excessive UV light

Trauma to the skin, including picking and acne scarring

All of these and more are responsible for stimulating excessive melanin production.

The nitty gritty of hyperpigmentation

There are essentially four types of pigmentation disorders:

Age spots These are often referred to as sun spots or solar keratoses, they are pigmented blemishes associated with ageing and sun damage.

They range in colour from light brown to black and are predominantly found in areas that have excess sun, such as the hands, face, and arms.

Freckles These are often referred to as ephelides, they are small pigmented spots containing more melanin than the surrounding skin.

Freckles are believed to be an inherited skin characteristic due to overactive melanocytes, the cause of freckles appears to be largely genetic.

Interestingly, research has found that those who possess a variant of the melanocortin-1 receptor gene, have more of a tendency to develop freckles than those who don’t.

Chloasma Hyperpigmentation appears on pregnant women, who have a genetic disposition to over producing melanin when they are expecting, often these marks disappear but in some cases they remain permanently.

It appears as a mask on the face and sometimes on the belly, where it shows up in a vertical line that is known as “line nigra” which is Latin for black line.

Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation PIH appears as a result of trauma to the skin such as a burn, acne or from squeezing pimples.

Basically it is an overproduction of melanin following inflammation, cytokines and inflammatory mediators have a stimulatory effect on melanocytes, which leads to an increase in melanin production.

Inflammation may also cause the destruction of basal keratinocytes, which leads to an accumulation of pigment at the site of traumatised skin.

In the case of PIH an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure, the key is to avoid inflammation, so no SQUEEZING.

Essentially every time you INTERFERE with melanin production, you are COMPROMISING the HEALTH of your SKIN.

Capillary flow becomes restricted which is critical to skin protection, because it is the only way that antioxidants and co factors such as minerals are delivered to the skin, giving you natural, free radical support that helps to maintain skin health.

It is a vicious cycle, because a deficiency in antioxidants and protective enzymes can result in an increase in melanin production.

It’s your skins way of saying, if I don’t have enough antioxidants to help, I will go into the second tier of protection and create more melanocytes, which will result in excessive hyperpigmentation.

Note: Hyper pigmentation shows up as brown patches whilst skin cancer appears as red or brown lesions. if you are concerned about pigmented lesions I’d advise you get them looked at by a medical practitioner.

Are you sporting that tan?

UV exposure is the biggest contributing factor to hyper pigmentation.

When melanin is produced in an even fashion your skin will tan.

A tan is a normal reaction to the sun which stimulates the skin and produces an enzyme called tyrosinase, this signals the melanocyte to INJECT into the surrounding cells, after a couple of days a tan begins to develop.

UV rays in particular UVB rays, cause melanocytes to produce an excessive amount of melanin, this forms dark patches of colour on the skins surface, which creates blotches and uneven skin tone.

Why does our tan fade? Melanocytes inject melanin into the cell, as these cells move towards the surface they shed.

Hyperpigmentation can be improved or eliminated completely by a variety of treatments; the article how to lighten skin covers this topic in more detail.

3 Comments

marlene on November 7, 2015 at 7:37 am

am in dire need of your product please let me know when and where i can purchase it my daughter has hyperpigmentation she is 40 and she got it 9 yrs ago while she was pregnant